There's something to be said of wit

Yeah, a lot of what bothers me about fantasy settings (especially D&D) is that people try to run wizards like they're academics, but their only exposure to academics is authoritative professors telling them The Truth, so they don't realize that all academics are always 5 seconds away from trying to strangle each other over questions like 'does time really pass or does it just seem to pass'

What makes it even funnier is that we're dealing with people who's area of expertise is finding ways to break reality, meaning that the more entrenched you are in your wizarding studies the more likely it is that you'll find a way to make reality confirm to your inherent bias.

This leads to your tenured litches/elven archmage professors LITERALLY unable to share rooms with eachother not only because of academic rivalry but because they have conflicting (and centuries outdated) theories of how physics should work and having them get into an augment would likely rip a hole into the astral sea.

Love the idea of a magic system that’s constantly in flux relative to where the nearest wizard is, though.

ah.

Keep in mind these things were advertised heavily as being able to drive through reasonably deep water as a standard feature.

It does this even in the wading mode if you attempt to do so.

So much water gets pooled into the frame you can hear it sloshing around.

Tesla “vehicles” are about as reliable as the machinations of a cartoon coyote.

I genuinely don't understand how you fuck up the automobile so fucking bad. We've had close to a century of knowing that all of this "innovation" is stuff that doesn't work.

Because they deliberately and specifically avoided all that stuff we learned the hard way because it was "old fashioned thinking." Like steering wheel design. There were a lot of steering wheel designs before we settled on the ubiquitous one we all use, and quite a few of the designers of those earlier ones have biographies that end with "died during field testing."

Musk ignored ALL of that accumulated knowledge, thinking he was very clever, and built a car-shaped object.

I started reading this post feeling like "do not wash in direct sunlight" sounds like it should get filed alongside "do not feed after midnight" and other warnings about the husbandry of mythological monsters, and then it turns out that putting water on it (in direct sunlight) will kill it, not precisely like but still having very much in common with the Wicked Witch of the West.

What a time to be alive.

Do we know yet if a few weeks of rain does the same thing?

MONKEY MAN (2024)

Poll: if your mom remarries when you’re 26 years old is that guy still your stepdad or is he just your mom’s husband.

The poll winner seems to be “depends on whether you like him” which is super valid.

Mine watches fox news so “mom’s husband” it is!

My family has a great way of distinguishing between a new spouse you like and new spouse you disdain!

Your mom/aunt/grandma/etc remarries and they are actually a cool person, you use their first name. So if you were to introduce them they would be: Aunt Jane and Bob.

If your mom/aunt/grandma/etc remarries and they are a fuckwad you introduce them as: this is Aunt Jane and her second husband. The implication being that they are very replaceable and that we’re all just waiting for her to wise up to the situation and serve you divorce papers, she did it once, she can do it again.

MAGNIFICENT

Alright, but what if my mom on her third marriage found a decent man, but my mother herself is shitty

"my stepdad's wife"

@sapphic-sargent your tags omg

You are doing God’s work

As I gaze at the structural column in Copley Station, cracked nearly in two and held together with zip ties that have been carefully painted over to match the column underneath, I feel my soul intertwined with that of a small Italian boy of days gone by, who also stopped to look up at a large, groaning, newly painted tank full of molasses

I feel that some non-Boston people think I may have been exaggerating this. While I did not snap a photo as I was on the train, someone else did several months ago. I do want to stress that this column is now freshly painted and therefore completely structurally sound and in absolutely no danger of causing the entire tunnel to collapse. And yes, it did in fact never cross my mind that the original post was nearly 105 years to the day of the Molassacre

This is so safe this is the safest I’ve ever felt good job mbta gold star

my dream as a fanfic writer is to write a story which people want to talk to me about and send asks about afterwards and discuss things the characters did and the symbolism and meanings behind certain lines and I'll be all "hehe thanks" but irl I'll be in literal tears because I wrote something that means something to someone

Please give me feedback! :)

I got an AO3 comment once which summarised said, 'I've been reading this fic for years and I keep coming back to it over and over because it's so amazing and I feel guilty that all this time I never commented, so this is me letting you know how much it's meant to me for so long.' And that was incredible, because five minutes before I didn't know that person existed and then they tell me that I've made such an impact on them.

It is never too late to leave a comment - the author will always be thrilled.

i love making art

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When people say "I put my Blood, Sweat and Tears into this" they do not mean LITERALLY, go get a bandaid.

I had a very interesting discussion about theater and film the other day. My parents and I were talking about Little Shop of Horrors and, specifically, about the ending of the musical versus the ending of the (1986) movie. In the musical, the story ends with the main characters getting eaten by the plant and everybody dying. The movie was originally going to end the same way, but audience reactions were so negative that they were forced to shoot a happy ending where the plant is destroyed and the main characters survive. Frank Oz, who directed the movie, later said something I think is very interesting:

That’s a real gem of a thought in and of itself, a really interesting consequence of the fact that theater is alive in a way that film isn’t. A stage play always ends with a tangible reminder that it’s all just fiction, just a performance, and this serves to gently return the audience to the real world. Movies don’t have that, which really changes the way you’re affected by the story’s conclusion. Neat!

But here’s what’s really cool: I asked my dad (who is a dramaturge) what he had to say about it, and he pointed out that there is actually an equivalent technique in film: the blooper reel. When a movie plays bloopers while the credits are rolling, it’s accomplishing the exact same thing: it reminds you that the characters are actually just played by actors, who are alive and well and probably having a lot of fun, even if the fictional characters suffered. How cool is that!?

Now I’m really fascinated by the possibility of using bloopers to lessen the impact of a tragic ending in a tragicomedy…

If we shadows have offended

Think but this and all is mended

I got a new job.

My job is literally to spot Good Puppers™ and feed them treats. And occasionally stick a swab in their cheek.

My partner's job is to run after me and stick a pamphlet in the owner's hands and occasionally fill out paperwork.

Face it peeps. I absolutely WON at this job thing.

Alrighty, the job is done and I would like to share some thing I learned:

-It doesn't matter how tired and Done they are, the vast majority of people will react positively if you approach them with a smile and shamelessly express admiration for something important to them (in this case, the dog)

-They are also extremely willing to talk at length if you so much as shoot them a wide-eyed interested look.

-Some people really have reached their limit for the day and they won't react well to you no matter how you approach them. You really, REALLY have to internalize the fact that it's not about you, they have just hit their people limit for the day, and you have to shrug it off and move on.

-People love free stuff. They love it even more if you act like you're breaking some minor rule to give them free stuff.

-Networking really does come down to you knowing people who know people and say you're willing to put them in contact with each other. Even if you hedge your bets and prevaricate by saying 'I'd have to ask' people are willing to take the chance and give you all kinds of stuff to sweeten the deal. I came home with three giant bags and two even bigger boxes of free samples of dog and cat food, a lecture for my mom to attend and a supply deal for mom's charities. And possibly a vet partnership for my emoloyer.

-Bringing a thermos of coffee to work makes people look at you like you're a literal godsend. Bringing a bottle of alcohol for the last day makes you the best neighbor.

-Some people get a little nervous with eye contact. It helps if you're looking at the dog when talking to them. Or if you do have to talk to them about paperwork and stuff, if you wear a funny hair ornament (in my case a hairpin with a dangly silk orchid) they will talk to the hair ornament half the time but the conversation will be much smoother.

-The stall owners are usually wary about handing out their free samples too generously and running out before the end of the event. But on the last day they face the dilemma of hauling all that stuff home, so they will pack you an entire bag of free stuff and hand it over with a smile just so they don't have to pack it up. Bonus point if you exchange it for some of your free stuff. And if you're just a convention-goer and not a stall-owner the same principle applies, and the guards aren't paid enough to keep you away on the last day. "I'm just here to help pack up" are the magic words.

In conclusion: Friendliness and a touch of shamelessness gets you friends and free stuff. You wouldn't believe how easy humans are to hack.

(by aloha_catlife)

New songs by Lewis!!! On youtube and bandcamp

This isn't a funny tweet it's a threat

It's always good to check your sources, even when the person giving you information presents themselves as an expert!* This person did helpfully give sources, so I'll link them.

*microbiologywes doesn't include his full name on his profile so I cannot verify his credentials. He does say he has a masters in microbiology. i don't actually think random online people SHOULD give their full credentials if they don't want to. after all, i'm just some rando giving you a wall of links

HIV from is from hunting primapes:

The rest are PubMed IDs which are easier to look up (use the "full text" links on the right if you want to read beyond the abstracts):

I have not gone through and validated every single claim in the video, just looked up the sources provided (and some extra reading for the topics that interested me) and linked them to expedite you checking his sources. Most of the quotes provided are just from abstracts. This is all very easy information to look up, and you will find plenty of accessible articles from trustworthy sources.

Misinfo about disease origins and spread, especially for STIs, has been a tool for bigotry and stigmatization since the dawn of civilization. Don't repeat it.

heidiwranglescats

btw.. Baa is apart of a litter with equally exceptional names

Stray cats 🐈

the simplicity of lactase supplements is so funny to me. it costs like $4 to circumvent evolutionary biology. want to eat dairy but your body doesn’t produce the enzyme necessary to digest lactose? the devs haven’t patched that yet but you can download a mod

doodle log